[aslkdjaslkdj]

That is only part of Amazon's advertising business. If you read their 10-k:

"Vendor Agreements We have agreements with our vendors to receive funds for advertising services, cooperative marketing efforts, promotions, and volume rebates. We generally consider amounts received from vendors to be a reduction of the prices we pay for their goods, including property and equipment, or services, and therefore record those amounts as a reduction of the cost of inventory, cost of services, or cost of property and equipment"

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=97664&p=irol-sec...

[shostack]

What's the insight here? How they handle the accounting of it?

[notatoad]

i think the insight is that if you count all the other advertising revenue that they book as "cost reductions" instead of standard revenue, then they're making a lot more than $1b per quarter off advertising (or alternatively, the fact that they're making $1bn per quarter is not a new thing)

[ej_campbell]

I think insight is that these Billions encompass more than their "product listing ads" type business.